Sunday, March 27, 2011

Barbecue Pork Pulled Sandwiches

Well Sunday Night is upon me and I'm dreading getting up in the morning to go to work. It's not so much the job as it is the getting up in the morning. I really hate getting up at 5:30 am to get ready for work.Thank goodness for coffee and my dogs. If I can just get up and hit the shower I'll be ok because the next thing I do is take the dogs for a quick little walk. After our walk I can have a cup of coffee.

The other thing I hate is I always have professional development on Monday nights at work, so this makes getting dinner ready a headache. I try to think of things that are easy to make and very quick.

So if you're like me you appreciate any short cut you can take for dinner. I have a super easy recipe for making Barbecue Pork Pulled Sandwiches. I used my crock pot to help me with this dish and it's perfect for a day when you are gone all day and need some dinner ready when you get home.

Barbecue Pork Pulled Sandwiches
3-4 lb pork butt (I had a pork loin so I just used that)
14 oz of beef broth
1/2 water
1/2 t liquid smoked
salt and pepper
barbecue sauce
hamburger buns

1. Cut pork into two pieces. Salt and pepper each piece and place in crock pot.
2. Pour beef broth,water and liquid smoke over meat.
3. Put cover on crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours.
4. After 6 hours of cooking remove pork to shred.
5. Take two forks and shred pork. Put pork into a microwavable dish and add barbecue sauce.
6 Heat meat in microwave to warm and serve on buns.

Barbecue Pork Pulled Sandwich



Saturday, March 26, 2011

How to make a Fence Rail Quilt

My first ever quilt was a Fence Rail quilt. I just learned how to quilt this past fall and have fallen in love with it. I love it so much that I'm considering purchasing a second sewing machine so I have one machine for piece quilting and one machine for quilting.

I'm going to give the directions and supply list for making a Fence Rail quilt. I'll also include a picture of one of my quilts so that you have a picture to look at for arranging your blocks and hopefully be able to see how I quilted it too.

Fence Rail Quilt
Supplies need:
1 1/8 yds each of three different fabrics, 1light, 1 medium & 1 dark
1/2 yd for binding
3 yards for backing
1 1/2 yds of batting
gridded ruler (6"x 24")
rotary cutter
neutral color thread
thread to blend or compliment fabric for quilting
pins
scissors
seam ripper
Sewing machine
iron and ironing board
Painters tape
safety pins
Steps for making the quilt
1. Cut six 5 1/2" strips from each of the three fabrics.
2. From each strip cut two 15 1/2"strips.
3. Take a 15 1/2" x 5 1/2" rectangle from each of the fabrics to make a set. Make 12 sets.
4. To make a block, pin two of the 15 1/2" x 5 1/2" rectangles, long edges together. Sew using a 1/4" seam. Pin the third 15 1/2" x 5 1/2" rectangle to the sewn pair on the preferred side and sew. Iron seams towards the darker fabric. Make the other 11 blocks the same as the first. Block measurement after sewn is 15 1/2" x 15 1/2".
5. Lay out the quilt in four rows of three blocks in a pattern that you like.
6. Sew each of the rows together then iron. Sew the rows together. Iron.
7. Take the 3 yards of baking and fold in half like a hamburger or the short way. Sew on a 1/4" seam on one of the short sides. Cut the folded edge of the material to make your backing.
8 Take this backing and tape wrong side up to a large table. If you don't have a table tape it to a hard surface floor (not on a carpet or rug).
9. Lay your batting on top.
10. Lay quilt top on batting and center. It may help to fold quilt top in half and unfold on top of batting to help with the centering.
11. Take safety pins and pin through quilt top, batting and backing. You want to start in the center and work out. Pin about every 3-4 inches. Remember you will have to remove these so don't go too crazy but make sure you won't have any shifting going on either.
12. You are ready for quilting! I quilted mine by echo quilting. Echo quilting is following the seam a 1/4" to the side. Start in the middle and work your way out.
13. Once you've finished the quilting part you are ready to bind your quilt. The easiest way is to use the backing, but their are other options for finishing your quilt. You can always google or reference a quilting book. My first quilt I made a binding strip and attached. The second one I simply used the backing to bind the quilt.
14. If you're going to use the backing trim the excess batting even with your quilt top. Take the corners of the backing and fold the tips inward. Iron these flat. Take and fold the sides of the backing inward to edge of quilt top and press. Fold baking over top of quilt top and pin in place. Your corners should meet as mitered corners at this point. Make any adjustments you need to make corners as clean as possible.
15. Sew binding (backing edge) along edge of quilt removing pins as you go. DO NOT SEW OVER PINS!
16. Voila! You have just finished your first quilt.

Let me know if you have any questions on making this quilt. I'll try and answer your questions as quick as I can and as thorough all as possible.



Thursday, March 24, 2011

Brownie Cookies and Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Well I'm officially on spring break from school. It started out great. The weather was warm, I had lots of ideas for things I was going to do like start posting again on my blog, but suddenly the weather reared its ugly head and wham! We've got snow! Not just a little snow, but a good 4-5 inches. This stuff is heavy too. Well needless to say this changed my plans a little, but hopefully today I can get back on track.

After shoveling for like 2 1/2 hours my body just aches and I long for something yummy chocolate. So I decided that today I would bake something chocolate. Should I make brownies, chocolate cupcakes with my super cool silicone muffin cups? Should I just simply make chocolate chip cookies? No! I'm going to make Brownie Cookies!

You know those super moist and chocolately brownie cookies you get from the bakery well I'm going to make these today. The recipe is something that I clipped from a magazine or one of those buy me cookbook offers. The ones that tantalize you with a few recipes and dozens of mouth watering pictures of all the great stuff you can make. Well I didn't buy this one, but I did clip the recipe so I could enjoy this chocolate treasure.

Also I'm going to make doggie treats for my beloved dogs, Katie and Bella. These treats have peanut butter in the mix and what dog doesn't love peanut butter? These treats are easy and your dogs will love them. Miss Mercury if you're reading my blog try making these for Hazel she'll love them. This recipe I found on the internet and I just kind of tweaked it to work for me and of course for Katie and Bella.


Brownie Cookies
1/2 C butter
4 (1oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 C (18oz) semisweet chocolate morsels, divided
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
2 t vanilla extract
2 C chopped pecans, toasted

Combine buttr, unsweetened chocolate, and 1 1/2 cups chocolate morsels in a large heavy saucepan.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter and chocolate melt; cool.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.
Beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer. Gradually add dry ingredients to egg mixture, beating well. Add chocolate  mixture; beat well. Stir in remaining 1 1/2 cups chocolate morsels and pecans.
Drop dough by 2 tablespoonfuls 1 inch apart onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Cool slightly on baking sheets; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen.